Worried about What You’re Eating? There’s an App for That

The week I spent with Dr Eric Berg in Washington DC at the MAHA ball was an amazing experience. I learned a lot from him and his invited guests.

One thing I found out about was Dr Berg’s junk food meter app. It’s a great tool to see quickly what is in different types of food at the grocery store.

The App is only available for iPhones at this time. Hopefully an Android version will be coming out soon.

The idea behind the app is pretty simple. Just use the camera on your phone to scan the barcode of whatever food package you want.

You may also have to take a picture of the ‘Nutrition Facts’ on the label. That’s where it breaks down the macros in the product. I tried it with an old jar of peanut butter in our pantry (I need to clear out my pantry!):

The app then tells you how good or bad some food is on the ‘junk food meter’.

The meter then has a scale from one to ten about how bad the food is. My peanut butter scored an 8. It further tells you:

• How many total grams of fat, carbs and proteins there are

• How many grams of starch (hidden sugar), seed oils and sugar

• What ingredients are in the product that could be detrimental to your health

It’s a simple app, but can be pretty effective. Especially if you’re trying to convince yourself, your family member or friend that what they are eating is not good for them (or you).

I wish it would breakdown the macros a little better, but you should be able to just read the nutrition facts for yourself for the breakdown. The app just highlights everything bad in an easy to read format.

The app also puts you in the habit of checking nutrition labels, which is important to do. Just looking at the front of the package doesn’t give you the information you need to be an informed consumer.

The app gives you 200 scans for free. Which should be plenty if you eat similar food most days. After the 200 it charges you $1.95 for another 200. Dr Berg told me that helps him break even on the app.

If you’re interested in more information about the app, you can watch his YouTube video about it here: